Meerkat halts livestreaming plan, will transition to social network

Rubin sent around an email to investors around a fortnight ago, Re/code reports, with the message openly admitting to Meerkat’s struggles. It turns out that whilst Meerkat’s livestreaming functionality was a hit, competitors offering a similar service elsewhere were having a huge impact on interest.

Meerkat’s boss wrote:

“Mobile broadcast video hasn’t quite exploded as quickly as we’d hoped. The distribution advantages of Twitter/Periscope and Facebook Live drew more early users to them away from us and we were not able to grow as quickly alongside as we had planned.”

Speaking to Re/code about the next step for Meerkat, Ben Rubin has revealed that his app is waving goodbye to its old self, now focused on delivering a social network where “everybody is always live.”

Whilst the Meerkat app still functions as it always has, the team behind the app are now putting their attention and time into other projects.

Understandably, Rubin remains tight-lipped when it comes to discussing the future of Meerkat and the planned changes, however it’s thought that the new experience will be more Skype-esque in nature.

Re/code notes that it’s likely Meerkat will turn its attention from live-streaming content to strangers around the world to private conversations with friends in smaller, group video chats.

Just how long it’ll take Meerkat to make the transition remains to be seen, but we’re very interested to see where Meerkat goes.

After three years studying at the University of Winchester, Tom graduated with a journalism degree under his belt. A couple of work placements out in the real world at PC Advisor and the BBC taught him that journalism is pretty fun, and a couple of months later he joined the team at Phonecruncher, then signing up with TalkAndroid. Tom would be the first to admit he spends far too much time worrying about Arsenal FC results and watching strange videos on YouTube.